


The Adventure

by hinalii



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Episode 10: Points, Episode Tag, M/M, POV First Person, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 11:47:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9070336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hinalii/pseuds/hinalii
Summary: The war is over and Dick finds himself struggling a bit about what’s going to be.''What do you think about New Jersey?''





	

The summer of 1945 was the hottest summer I have memory of. If someone would ask me what I think of heaven, I’d say I was in heaven, in a village hidden in the Alps in Austria, near a lake. Compared to where I’d been, what I saw and what I did that winter, that village near the lake in Austria could only be heaven.  
The war’s over, but I can’t think of going home, back to my ordinary life after all of this, how can everything go back to the way it was? How could I go back to be the man I was before the war? This war is over but the one in the Pacific is not. The man I am now knows nothing but war, maybe I should stay in the Army and do the thing I know best. I really don’t know. I am still thinking about it one morning sitting by the lake, about to go for my morning swim when I hear the voice of Lewis Nixon coming at me.

''I thought it might’ve been you.'' What is he doing up so early? …it’s not like Nix.  
''Good morning.''  
''I heard reports about a redheaded Eskimo, thought I’d check it out.''  
''Come and join me for a morning swim?'' I know he doesn’t like to swim, or any kind of activity before breakfast, but I still try. Nix laughs at me:  
''Yeah… you know me so well…Here.'' He gives me an envelope, only now I remember. I’ve been waiting for this for a while now. I pull out the envelope that contains my photographs.  
''I found the photographer of the 506th. Traded the photographs for two lugers.'' I say to Nix.  
''A bargain.''

I found a photograph of him and me back in Toccoa, we look the same as three years ago, yet I feel so different. I know we are not the same men. I show it to him. He smiles a bit to the memories, his smile looks just like the smile of the Lewis Nixon in the photograph, yet those days just seem so far away. I look at him while he’s not looking my way. I’m glad he’s with me now, I really don’t know how I was going to survive this war without him. I lost many men during this war, too many to count them, but, as much as, in my position of major, responsible for so many lives, it shames me to say so, if losing so many of them was the price to pay to have nothing happening to Nix, then I’d regret nothing. It shames me to admit such a thing, such a selfish thought, yet when I think of Holland, back in Neunen, when they almost managed to take Nix from me, I do not care for such irrelevant things as shame. I almost lost him that day, and I still remember how I felt, I still feel it sometimes. I remember seeing him falling down, I didn’t even heard the sound of the bullet, then I lost control. For the first time since I became a soldier I couldn’t act like one. The only thing I could think of in that moment was Nix, all I cared about was that Nix would be okay, I couldn’t care about the men, I couldn’t care about the Germans, in my mind there was only place for him. I think my terror was showing on my face cause when Nix recovered, which fortunately took only a minute since the bullet only ricocheted on his helmet, he looked at me in a strange way like I was the one in shock after being almost hit by a bullet.  
''Quit looking at me like that.'' Then I smiled, that was my Nix. Everything was okay.

''What you think you’ll do after this?'' Nix’s voice takes me back to reality.  
''Get some breakfast.'' I know he doesn’t mean that but I don’t have an answer for him.  
''Nah… After, after.'' Yeah… after, AFTER.  
''Well, it’s funny you mention it cause I had a meeting with Col. Sink.'' I was going to tell him sooner or later, now seems as good a time as any.  
''Really?''  
''Yeah…yeah, discussed the possibility of staying.'' He has this look in his eyes as if, for a moment he heard it wrong.  
''In the Army?''  
I know what he must be thinking, after all this time fighting this horrible war, how anyone wouldn’t want to finally go home? And I get it, I do, but I’m afraid things wouldn’t be just the same.  
''Yeah… yeah, as a career.'' He seems to think about it.  
''What’d you say?''  
''Said I’d think about it.'' He sits quiet for a moment.  
''What do you think about New Jersey?''  
''New Jersey?'' What’s it with New Jersey, now?  
''There’s a company in Nixon, NJ. It’s called Nixon Nitration Works.'' So this is his plan for after, AFTER.  
''Sounds picturesque.''  
''Yeah, well, oddly enough I know the owners. Probably gonna expect me to make something of myself. I thought maybe I’d drag you along with me…''

Oh… So this is what he’s talking about. I’ve never even thought about this about us after the war. I couldn’t even imagine my life without Lew, war or not war, so I never gave it much thought. But now he’s presenting this possibility with me, and as much as the future can be uncertain, a life with Lewis Nixon sounds better than a life in the Army. 

''Are you offering me a job?'' Actually he’s offering me a life with him and we both know it.  
''We’ll see how you do on your interview, but, you know, a man of your qualifications… I think probably scrape something up commensurate with your current salary level.''  
Ah, he’s trying to play it cool but I know how much he’d be happy if I’d say yes. Maybe for him it’s the same. We can’t imagine life without each other.  
''Yeah, I’ll think about it. I… I really appreciate it.'' I’m playing it cool too, but I already made up my mind, still, today I have my interview with the Army and if they want to send to the Pacific, I won’t return to home for a while longer.  
''Yeah… just, think about it.''

I take off my shirt and jump into the lake, the cool water clears my thoughts and I can think clearly. When I re-emerge from the water I see Nix going through my photographs. He shows me one of him and me dressed with the training uniform (black shorts and white t-shirt) back in Toccoa.  
''Look at two kids.'' He says,  
''What the hell happened to them?'' Yeah… what the hell happened?  
''New Jersey, uh?'' Only now I realize how much I actually want it, I like it. The idea of him and me working together, living the rest of our lives as we lived the war. Together. I want it. I want to go to New Jersey, I want to spend the rest of my life with Lewis Nixon.

Later that day I have my interview where they’re discussing whether or not to send me to the Pacific immediately. The colonel is surprised to hear I’d abandon my men to go lead another company at the other side of the world. Truth is, my men don’t need me anymore and if they want to send me there, I prefer they do it now, while I’m still not used to a normal life. I know how everyone can’t wait to go home, most of the soldiers are stuck here, not enough points to be sent back home. Points… after everything they did, everything they’ve been through, now it’s a matter of points… I don’t get it… Anyway, with the exception of Nix, I still haven’t told anyone about it. Then one day Nix is talking to Harry Welsh, who made the decision to go home, since he has enough points to do so, and marry his girlfriend. I join them just in time to hear Nix making fun of him, saying that after three years she probably found someone else. 

''Ignore him, Harry.'' I say to him, Nix is still laughing at his own joke.  
''You told him, yet?'' I ask him.  
''Couldn’t get him to shut up.'' says Nix.  
''What? Tell me what?'' Harry looks at Nix then back at me, so I tell him about my transfer request, Harry says nothing but I know he didn’t expect this. Then he's asking Nix:  
''Are you going on this too?'' He thought, as I did, that Nix, like the others, wanted to go home as soon as he could.  
''I can’t let him go by himself. He doesn’t know where it is.''

Nix makes the joke just to make Harry and me laugh but I know what’s really behind it. Nix wouldn’t let me go to war by myself and I know him well enough to know there’s nothing I can do to make him change his mind, except, maybe withdraw my transfer request. It is in moment like this that I really understand how much Lew cares about me, how important I am to him, it’s not in the things he says, or doesn’t say, but in his actions, he’d rather risk his life in another useless war by my side than stay safely at home but knowing I’m at the other side of the world getting shot trying to win a stupid war.

This is why three weeks after the end of the war in the Pacific was announced, and they sent us back home, I’m standing out the door of what, from my point of view, seems a rather large accommodation for only two people, just outside Nixon, New Jersey.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. I only write for fun, and I don’t mean to offend anyone by doing this.  
> This was written over a year ago.  
> Title is a song by angels and airwaves. I was trying to describe what went through Winters’ mind during episode ten: ‘’points’’.  
> Also I am ignoring what happened to the lives of the real Richard Winters and Lewis Nixon, I only care about ep 10 here.  
> English is not my first language so all mistakes are mine.


End file.
